And now . . . we are in August.
I paid rent yesterday. Bloody rent. Rent is like a ghost; always lingering about when you wish it wasn’t. You want to sleep. You want to go about your day. You want a simple answer to a straightforward question. The ghost is lurking and giving riddles. Bloody ghosts.

Anyway, I know you are not reading this to read about ghosts, although maybe you should be. I mean, really, they’re ghosts. Do you want to be haunted for the rest of your life by a riddle speaking apparition? Hell no. We need to calm those ghosts. In order to do that, sometimes we need to solve a riddle. Only once the riddle is solved do we understand the future of our own dilemma. Only once the riddle is solved can we sleep soundly through the night. Only once the riddle is solved can we move forward with what is in our hearts.

Moving forward with what is in our hearts. This brings me to SubConsciousMind and his album Intermezzo Extended.

Moving forward with what is in our hearts, or as he puts it:I don’t know what you want from me,
I don’t know what you think of me,
But I know there is my soul,
and it needs to be free

It needs to be free. Free from the ghost. Free from the haunted past. Free from the pain and trauma within. Free from what was holding it and keeping it in ghost form. It needs to be released. Freed.

My mind has been freed this summer. It all started back in May, then really took shape in June, then was double checked in July. Now it is August. Wow. August. Bloody hell, back to the review. So, this album I am writing about. I am writing a lot. That means I really like the album. Even if I haven’t described a lick of it. lol. Have you caught on to my style yet? So . . .

This album is great. It’s filled with spritely melodies and much soul. The acid lines feel like real honest and purposeful melodies that have a sense of meaning behind them. You hear the acid crawling up and sliding down. The harmonies in the background use the right synth pads to give each song a proper feeling of completeness.

The songs carry a sense of purpose for the writer’s soul as well as for my own. The songs convey a sense of personal connection and storytelling, as well as a plane for you to weave your own connections through as well. It is definitely suited for what most people would consider morning music, however I am one of those people that would actually enjoy hearing this music in the middle of the night as well. I am not a banging 187bpm nutter. I like my songs to feel like songs. Unlike a lot of psytrance DJs who don’t participate in the psychedelic culture regularly, I do. And the heavy shit isn’t meant for peak hour. This music is. This isn’t tweaker music.

I have a pile of reviews I want to write. A pile. However this summer has been too epic for me to sit down and write anything at all. But then once track 4 -‘MyMusic’- hit my ears, I knew I had to write this review. This album needs to be heard. This is really good. And it’s free.

…

That means you have zero reason to pass this album up. And please please please, don’t skip to track 4 simply because I mentioned it specifically. You want to work into it. And then you want to work past it. You need to work into those tears and the words of pain. You need to understand where it is coming from and why it is important to talk about. Then you need to get past it.

You need to slowly work into the many layers of acid lines. The layers of noise and cacophony. The Goa roots and the journey within. None of these things will happen if you skim the album. The old TIP energy. The Man With No Name melodies. Those damn Man With No Name melodies. They are so refreshing to hear. Especially when done as well as this.

I need more than well produced noises to get my mind off. According to legend, which I have no idea if this is true or not, it is not the size of the boat that matters, but what you do with it. If we accept this as a truth, and that size does not matter, then perhaps this would explain what bothers me about the amazing cock-off of a lot of the current music being released. It is all about size. All about speed and the many well produced noises and tricks. But none of that really matters. In fact, sometimes that makes it less ideal. Sometimes a woman wants someone who knows how to rock that knot properly, regardless of production values, and sometimes she needs a solid groove to feel groovy with.

That is what is going on here. The creeping. The crawling. The dance that happens outside of the song you hear. The space between notes which offers your mind a chance to fill in the gaps. The major key melodies. The sugar rush and the morning high. The love. The calming of the bloody ghosts.

SubConsciousMind might be the external embodiment of the internal ghosts and demons which we all face and come to terms with; if it is, it is rather cathartic.
This might also simply be a very well put together album for a summer morning or afternoon spent contemplating the various paths your future might walk upon and how to reach the one which is best suited for you. Or, it might simply be a fantastic album of spirit and love. An album of hope through despair. An album that tries to answer the eternal question:

I don’t know what you want from me, I don’t know what you think of me, But I know there is my soul, and it needs to be free

I hope that this SubConsciousMind gets to go free. But I also hope that it doesn’t stray too far, for I’d really like to hear more in the future.
xoxox -A’damn

Musically, this is what I guess we’d classify as Newskool Goa, a genre I generally find as completely useless and devoid of integrity as the “cover band” ethos it carries.

SubConsciousMind however, has something different to add into the mix. I’m not entirely sure what it is — but that’s the strong point, the moneyshot, the “something extra” that keeps you entertained and makes you – probably – more likely to donate via the artists website.

Unpredictalizer opens things up beautifully; a laconic, almost lazy opening unfolds and cascades into a pure Anjuna peak with melodies, energy and swirls over a persistent, failthful rhythm section.

Essenz is an interesting one: Jarresque synths moodify their way over a tight bottomend, before tight acid stabs combine to raise the energy. The fluidity and energy is quite wonderful, although I concede that the closing melodic section is somewhat less so. The track was doing fine without keychanges, but then it’s not up to me.

MyMusic is an extremely strong track. It plays with melodies, it warps around, it’s not afraid to stay in one position where doing so builds tension. It recedes to a cinematic feel before coming cascading back out the speakers at you in one of the most delightful 303 flurries in recent (or even less recent) memory.

Acidlines make another strong appearance on (Out-In)Side, which has some great runs and heaps of imagination flowing throughout, while Past Be Past nods firmly in the direction of Astral Projection.

It all comes together on iRemberem oGa, the track name that’s a bitch to type correctly, so I copy and pasted it off the website. It’s epic — ten-plus minutes of a journey that’s not ashamed to bring in Eastern melodies, not ashamed to open out with the big synths, not ashamed to stick in a keychange here and there. The most confident, up-for-it track on the album, it’s already head and shoulders above a lot of the emotionless dross that masquerades around in an old lycra singlet claiming to be modern Goa.

It’s not without its faults; I’d have liked fatter, heavier mastering and it must be noted that the propensity to introduce melodic climaxes (or should that be climaces?) is occasionally frustrating: SubConsciousMind needs to realise that forced changes simply aren’t needed when your music speaks so well for itself.

There are a couple of important points that I think are raised here.

Firstly, it’s free (in mp3, FLAC, or wav.) This means that SubConsciousMind is having his music broadcast to an infinitely larger number of people than if it was a conventional, pay-for-product release.

Secondly, getting it for free (and a ‘guilt-free free’ at that) DOES feel different. I will concede that speaking of free music is a little ludicrous when most people get all their music for free, but it’s a different experience having an artist and connecting netlabel consent to supplying you with music at no cost. The effect of this, as I hinted above, is that as a consumer you are somehow more likey to PayPal a fiver in the artist’s direction. The psychology is fascinating.

I recommend this album not just because it’s free, and not just because it’s good.

My chief reason for recommending Intermezzo Extended is that like it or not, it does represent a new paradigm in music distribution and one we all need to switch on to and wake up to, more than we are currently doing.

SubConsciousMind, and Ektoplazm, make the Long Tail wiggle enticingly.